Chiang Mai, Thailand

The death earlier this year in Thailand of two sisters from Quebec was caused by drinking a cocktail that contained the insect repellent DEET, an autopsy concluded.

Results of the autopsy at a Bangkok hospital have not been publicly released, but they were shown to reporters for CBC’s French-language news network.

According to the report, 20-year-old Audrey and Noémi Bélanger, 25, had DEET in their bodies that they had ingested.

Though the chemical is a potentially neurotoxic mosquito repellent, it is used as an ingredient in a euphoria-inducing cocktail that is popular among youth in Thailand.

The drink contains cough syrup, Coke, DEET and ground up kratom leaves, which are a mild narcotic indigenous to Thailand.

It is thought that an overdose of DEET was accidentally mixed into the young women’s drinks.

They had just arrived on the Thai island of Phi Phi and were last seen partying with two Brazilian friends in the early morning of June 13. Forty-eight hours later, when staff at their hotel hadn’t seen them emerge from their room, a receptionist called police.

As the two Quebec sisters found dead in a hotel room in Thailand were laid to rest on Saturday in their hometown, the cause of their deaths remains a mystery.

Results from the preliminary autopsies conducted in Thailand did not reveal how Audrey, 20, and Noemi Belanger, 25, died.

The autopsy report stated no traces of drugs were found in their bodies.

Quebec’s coroner conducted a second autopsy, results of which are still unknown.

Staff on the Thai resort island of Phi Phi found the women dead in a hotel room two weeks ago. Thai authorities said there were no signs of violence in the room, but they said there was vomit on the floor and other signs the women were poisoned.

Audrey and Noemi’s father, Carl, told QMI Agency earlier in the week that he deplored the way Thai authorities handled the case. He called Thai police work “corrupt” and“rotten.”

Carl Belanger said the investigation took too long and there was little communication between Thai authorities and the family.

“(Thai) authorities said they found their bodies 12 hours after they died,” Carl said. “But according to our calculations, it was 48 hours.”

The Belanger family also told QMI Agency that Quebec coroner Renee Roussel told them the women’s bodies were kept for five days in Thailand under conditions that were “not respectable.”

The family was not able to identify the women’s bodies because they were told the sight of the corpses would be too shocking, Carl said.

The family believes the sisters were accidentally killed by exposure to an INSECTICIDE vapour used to kill bed bugs.

A Thai doctor who briefly examined two Canadian sisters found dead in a Thailand hotel room believes they might have been killed after eating toxic mushrooms or potentially deadly puffer fish.

Autopsy results are not yet in for Noemie and Audrey Belanger but a hospital director in Krabi, Thailand, told The Phuket News he arrived at his theory following a preliminary examination of the women’s bodies.

Dr. Komkrit Phukrityakame said the Quebec sisters may have been victims of food poisoning after eating puffer fish, also called Fugu, which are one of the deadliest animals on Earth.

The spiked fish contain a strong toxin that’s 100 times deadlier than potassium cyanide if not properly prepared by specialized chefs.

A dish of fugu can easily cost ¥5,000 (approx. US$50), but it can be found for as little as ¥2,000 (approx. US$20), and a full-course fugu meal (usually eight servings) can cost ¥10,000–20,000 (approx. US$100–200) or more.

The expense encourages chefs to slice the fish very carefully to obtain the largest possible amount of meat. The special knife, called fugu hiki, is usually stored separately from other knives.

Two Canadian sisters found dead in their hotel room on the popular Thai resort island of Phi Phi may have been the victims of “serious food poisoning”,police said on Sunday.

The bodies of Audrey and Noemi Belanger, aged 20 and 26, were found on Friday by staff of Palm Residence Hotel on Ao Nang in Muang district. Early indications were that they suffered an extreme toxic reaction, news agencies reported.

“Forensic officials found vomit in the room, blood on their lips and gums and their fingernails and toenails were blue,” Pol Lt Col Rat Somboon of Krabi Provincial Police said, adding there were “signs of serious food poisoning”.

“They died more than 12 hours before being found. They had eaten meals outside the hotel,” he said.

The bodies of the sisters, who were from Canada’s French-speaking Quebec province, were taken from Phi Phi to the nearby town of Krabi on Thailand’s Andaman seaboard, where a probe into the cause of the deaths was underway, he added.

Pol Lt Pongpan Waiyawat, of Phi Phi’s police force, said more details would be released “once there is some progress”, adding there was no indication of a violent struggle inside their room.

“Their bodies were found a little after midday,” Pol Lt Pongpan said.

”We will have to wait for the post-mortem to determine the cause of death but based on initial investigations there’s no sign of violence in their room.”

Pol Lt Wisawa Senghar, who is based on Phi Phi, said the sisters had only planned to stay Tuesday night at the hotel, but extended their stay.

”It really is difficult to speculate what may have killed them,” he told the Phuketwan website.

Anangkana Choisrinal, a nurse at Krabi Hospital where the bodies are being kept, told Phuketwan both women had a mysterious rash.

”I have never seen a case like it. We have no idea as yet what killed the women.”

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In May 2009, American Jill St Onge, 27, and Norwegian Julie Michelle Bergheim, 22, died in similar circumstances while staying in adjoining rooms at the Laleena guesthouse.

Despite pathology tests in Norway and the US, the women’s cause of death has never been determined.

Lt Siwa Saneha of Phi Phi Island Police Station told the Phuket Gazette, “We received a report at about 9pm yesterday, that two tourists’ bodies were found in the same hotel room at the Phi Phi Palms Residence.We rushed to the hotel with medical officers from Koh Phi Phi Hospital and a rescue team.”

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The sisters, one aged 20 and the other aged 26, checked in to the hotel on Tuesday.

.“They went out and came back to their room that same night, but stayed in their room all day on Wednesday,” he said.
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It was not until yesterday that hotel staff became concerned for the women’s welfare.

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The deaths of these two women follow an American and two Norwegian tourists dying of suspected poisoning after staying at ‘The Laleena guesthouse’ on Phi Phi Island in 2009.

The manager of the Downtown Inn Hotel in Chiang Mai yesterday denied the hotel has been using a bedbug killer containing chlorpyrifos.

His comments followed reports in the New Zealand media that an independent investigation had found traces of chlorpyrifos, a potentially lethal toxin used to kill bedbugs, in samples from hotel rooms where guests had developed fatal illnesses and some died either right in their hotel rooms or elsewhere.

Thanthep Bunkaeo said Downtown Inn Hotel, which is in Muang district, had stopped using the bedbug killer a long time ago.

He insisted there was no chlorpyrifos in any of the hotel rooms.

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Earlier, the findings from an independent investigation were reported on the New Zealand television programme 60 Minutes.

The investigators noted that SEVEN GUESTS who had stayed at the hotel and died later on MIGHT have died because of high levels of pesticide in their hotel rooms.

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Investigators found traces of chlorpyrifos on bed linen in one of the hotel rooms.

A Canadian man from Edmonton has become the SEVENTH MYSTERY DEATH in a MONTH in a controversy which has rocked the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai.

Canadian Bill Mah, 59, died after using the facilities of the Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai, where a British couple and a Thai tourist guide were found dead in their rooms, and also from where a 23-yr-old New Zealand woman was taken convulsing and vomiting before her death in hospital.

Today friends and relatives of Mr. Mah, who worked for Telplus Communications in Edmonton as a telephone installer and repairman, were seeking clarification of the cause of his death saying Mr. Mah had no history of any heart problem. The death was not made public at the time.

Ken Fraser, who was on golfing holiday with his friend from Alberta said: “His death is a complete mystery. He seemed fit enough with no history of heart problems. We have not been told his cause of death. We only have an initial report.

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“That report states ‘Suspected natural disease pending lab reports and toxicology’, but we have not been given the results of the tests and we have pressed the Canadian consul to try and get answers for us. I know Bill used the facilities at the Downtown Inn because he asked me to go there with him but I had other things to do. What natural disease are they saying he had?”

In early February, I spent three nights at Chiang Mai Ram Hospital with, what I think of as a SEVERE case of diarrhea and nausea. I thought the care was EXCELLENT; however, they were unable to diagnose the cause.

Police have ruled out foul play after four people staying at a Chiang Mai hotel died over a 16-day period.

Two foreign tourists and a Thai tour guide were all found dead in the DOWNTOWN INN Hotel in Chiang Mai’s Muang district last month. A third foreigner staying at the hotel later died in hospital.

Despite some coincidences and similarities in the deaths, police do not believe any of the victims were murdered.

The first death was that of Thai tour guide Waraporn Yingmahasaranont, 47, whose body was found in front of the bathroom inside her fifth-floor room on Feb 3. Police said she had suffered from diarrhoea before her death.

On Feb 18, New Zealand tourist Sarah Carter, 23, was killed by an apparent bout of food poisoning.

Hotel staff interviewed by police said Carter and two foreign friends, who had also checked in to a room on the fifth floor, had brought barbecued pork and chicken back to the hotel that night and later became violently ill.

The staff took them to a local hospital, where Carter died. The two friends recovered and have since left Thailand.

Pol Lt Col Sawat Lakas, deputy chief of Muang district police in Chiang Mai, said investigators were still waiting for results of the post-mortem examination on Carter and Waraporn.

The next night, an elderly British couple died in their fourth-floor room.

A post-mortem examination confirmed both George Everly, 78, and Elean Everly, 74, died as a result of an unusual enlargement of their heart muscles with blocked arteries, Pol Lt Col Sawat said.

However despite the coincidence, doctors found no trace of poison in their stomachs, nor did police find any evidence of a struggle in the room.

The deputy chief said all three of the guests who died at the hotel had locked their rooms from the inside.

Hotel manager Thanthep Boonkaew has been called for questioning by police.